


Something Good Can Work

by TechnoSkittles



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged Up, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Cute, F/M, Fluff, Marichat, Pre-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Tumblr Prompt, marinette's in college in this, post-hawkmoth defeat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-09 17:09:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20998376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TechnoSkittles/pseuds/TechnoSkittles
Summary: Like all college students, Marinette is stressed to the high heavens about school assignments and her impending future. Unlike most college students, she's also a superhero on top of that. Chat Noir just wishes she would relax and offers her a way to do just that.based on the prompt; “I don’t see what’s wrong with me taking a nap right here, right now.”





	Something Good Can Work

"I don't see what's wrong with me taking a nap right here, right now," Chat drawled, stretching out his arms before nestling deeper into his spot, eyes fluttering shut.

Marinette huffed and prodded one of his cheeks with her finger. "Because you're sprawled across my lap and I'm trying to work. This project is due tomorrow and I've already fallen so far behind! If I turn in any more late assignments the professor will fail me!"

Chat yawned, unconcerned. "C'mon Mari, you won't fail and we both know that. You're one of the best fashion students that university has ever had. If they failed you it's their loss."

Marinette rolled her eyes and shifted her legs in an attempt to jostle Chat enough to get him off her lap. It didn't work. He was a stubborn one, for sure. "Without this degree I won't get a good job anywhere though. And then all my hard work will be for nothing." She leaned over Chat to pick up a pair of fabric scissors on the table, straining to get a straight cut with the weight bearing down on her. "I can't give up on my dream when I've gotten this far."

Chat lazily opened one of his eyes to see Marinette's determined expression. Her tongue was poking out of the corner of her mouth adorably, brows furrowed in total concentration. It was cute. She was cute.

But he also noticed the bags under her eyes, a deep purple that looked downright painful. He frowned.

"When was the last time you've slept?"

"Doesn't matter." She finished off the cut with a flourish, dropping the scissors back onto her desk. She held up the fabric, eyeing it carefully to see how accurate her cut was.

Chat sighed and finally decided to raise off of Marinette's lap but didn't climb off. Instead he leaned into her personal space, eyes boring into her own sagging ones, dull with sleep deprivation and absolute exhaustion.

"Yes, it does matter," he said firmly and raised a hand when she made a sound of objection. "There's no way you'll do your best work if you're on the brink of passing out." He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment, gazing at her worriedly. "Are your classes really that difficult on you? Is that why you haven't been sleeping?"

Marinette's eyes widened in something akin to panic for a second before she averted her eyes. They darted around the room, finding something new to rest on every couple of seconds. "Some-something like that," she mumbled.

Chat lifted a hand to twist one of her braids in-between his fingers, noting how the ends with frayed and lackluster. "You know, Ladybug's been pretty exhausted too lately."

He felt Marinette stiffen under his touch and she actually shrunk away. "R-really? I, uh…I hadn't noticed." She pressed her lips together and swatted his hand away, still not looking at him. "She always seems so energetic when she's saving Paris." She punctuated the statement with a nervous laugh, finally flicking her gaze over to him with a sheepishness to her smile.

Chat shrugged. "We've been busy. What with the surge in akuma attacks lately." He smirked and leaned close again, reveling in the squeak that left Marinette's mouth as she leaned back, eyes blown wide. "She's been getting kind of sloppy if you ask me."

Chat watched Marinette's brows raise before furrowing as she puffed her cheeks. "Hey! That's not true!" Then she suddenly reared back, more uneasy laughter spilling from her lips as she averted her gaze once more and rubbed the back of her neck. "I-I mean, _I_ don't think it's true. I think she's doing a _great_ job."

He smiled and leaned back, giving Marinette her space again and watching as she visibly deflated from letting out a breath. "She always does," he says fondly. "But she needs her rest, just like _someone else_ know." He raised his eyebrows and hummed for emphasis.

She rolled her eyes again. "I already said I'm _fine_, Chat. But I won't be if you don't let me finish this assignment." She reached behind him to make a grab for her supplies, but he caught her arm before she could. She turned on him quickly, leveling a glare into his neon gaze, only to be met with a gaze as steely as her own.

"Let me go, Chat."

"Not until you promise to get some rest."

Marinette groaned and attempted to free herself, but Chat tightened his grip and reeled her arm in-between their bodies. "You're going to be okay, Marinette," he promised softly.

"Look, I can handle it just fine! I knew what I was signing up for when I decided to go to school for a fashion degree. Late nights are part of the deal." When he didn't relent she growled in frustration and tried to yank her arm back again. "I said I'm fine!"

"You're just as stubborn as her, too," he chuckled good-naturedly.

Marinette blinked. "As who?"

"Ladybug."

Marinette stuck her tongue out and gave her arm another yank. "Or maybe you're just really pushy."

"Why do you care so much about a dumb degree anyway? You have more than enough talent to get a job _now _at some high-brow agency and we both know it."

"Most agencies won't even _look_ at candidates without a degree nowadays."

Chat sat there in thought for a moment. Then, "What about the Agreste Company?"

Marinette froze at the name, blinking a few times before scrunching her nose and looking down. "After everything that happened with Gabriel? I'm not sure I'd want to work for a company that can barely stand on two legs."

Chat frowned. It was true. His father's fashion company was plummeting in popularity ever since it was unveiled that Hawkmoth - _his very own father_ \- was heading it. It left more than a sour taste in everyone's mouths. His more than anyone else's. Stocks and sales had been crashing ever since that horrific fact had been uncovered and the business itself was struggling to keep its head high in a sea of disapproval and public scrutiny.

But he'd been working hard to change that. Adrien never had much of a vested interest in fashion himself, only forced into it at his father's request. At first, he wanted more than anyone to see it go under.

It wasn't until some time after, looking through photographs of his mother, sickened with the knowledge of what his father had _really_ been doing all this time as Hawkmoth, that Adrien realized he just couldn't allow that to happen. Not for his father's sake or his own, but for his mother's. She had just as much a part in starting up the company alongside his father and she had put just as much hard work into building it as Gabriel had.

So Adrien had decided to step up, taking the wildly spinning wheel of an already half-sunken ship. He'd started public campaigns to improve the company's image, denouncing his father and all of his actions. He changed company policies, hired new (albeit reluctant) designers to replace the ones who'd left after his father's arrest. He partnered with non-profits, donated to a numerous amount of charities with his already limited funds that had been steadily decreasing since the company's decline, did collaborations with other fashion companies…doing everything short of revealing himself as Chat Noir, Paris' very own superhero who helped take Hawkmoth down to keep the company afloat.

"Well, from what I've heard, that Adrien Agreste has taken over since then, right? And he's trying to build it back up." He waggled his eyebrows. "And if I recall correctly, didn't you use to go to school with him sometime ago?"

Marinette whipped her head up and immediately started sputtering, wildly flailing her arm around. "What? I mean, _yeah_ but….that was _years_ ago! We haven't really talked much since then and…no! I couldn't!"

Chat tilted his head to the side. "Why not?"

"I'm not going to take advantage of him like that! It's…it's _cheating_!"

Chat shrugged. "I don't see how. I mean, you've designed for the company before, right? You won that competition? And you're more than qualified enough." The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that Marinette would be an _excellent_ addition to his team. Maybe if she joined, they might be able to rise back up to join the game.

Of course, he wasn't offering for entirely selfish reasons. He knew that Marinette would benefit just as much from the deal as he would. It was a win-win if you asked him.

"I can't just ask for a job just because I know Adrien!" Marinette argued.

Chat laughed, a full-bellied one. "That's exactly what networking _is_, Marinette. It's what the industry thrives on. Knowing the right people." When Marinette still seemed unconvinced, he pushed on. "Besides, like I said, you're more than talented enough to get a job from him."

Marinette remained silent, eyes dropping down to where his hand still gripped her arm. He brushed his thumb across her skin.

"If you want, I can always ask him for you?"

"That's _worse_!"

"Then you ask him." Finally he dropped her arm, letting it fall between them and taking one of her braids in his hand again. "And when you get the job-"

"_If_ I get the job."

"_When_ you get the job," he repeated and tugged gently on her hair, "you can stop killing yourself over meaningless assignments like this and skip straight to the part where you become a successful fashion designer. The best there ever was." And then he offered her a smile, brilliant and blinding.

Marinette chewed on her bottom lip in thought. "I don't know, Chat…"

"If you're still unsure, maybe think about the fact that you are probably the _exact_ kind of person Adrien Agreste needs on his side. If anything, he probably needs you more than you need him." And that was also true. Marinette was good, almost _too good_, for someone like him and his dying company. If she still rejected the idea, he couldn't exactly blame her for it.

He dropped her braid back onto her shoulder and softened his tone. "But ultimately, it's still your decision to make, Mari. I can't make you do anything you don't want to."

Blue eyes drifted up to look into his with a soft smile painted on her lips. He returned it before reaching out to grab her shoulders. "Except sleep. I am absolutely making you sleep and there's nothing you can do about it." Then he hopped off her lap, picking her up with next to no effort and crushed her to his chest.

"Wha-Chat! Put me down!"

But he was already climbing the ladder to her loft bed, keeping her tucked underneath one arm. "No can do, Princess. I will make you get some rest if it's the last thing I do."

"Oh it _will_ be the last thing you do!"

—

Two days later, Marinette was nervously gnawing on her lip as she juggled her phone between her hands. She swiveled back in forth in her desk chair and her sighs could practically be heard all the way down to the bakery two floors down.

Tikki floated in front of her, a reassuring smile pushing up her chubby cheeks. "You can do it, Marinette."

Marinette returned the smile and finally stilled. "Thanks, Tikki."

And then she pressed "call".

Her heart hammered in her chest, bruising her rib cage from the sheer force of it as she listened to the line trill on and on. It was the most grueling three seconds of her life.

"Hi, you've reached Agreste Designs, how can I-"

"Adrien?"

There was a brief pause before a stunned, "Marinette? Is that you?"

Marinette smiled, gaze drifting over to her kwami who gave her a thumbs up. Taking a deep breath, she gave herself just a moment to gather up all the courage she could muster.

Then, "Yeah. I heard you're looking for some new fashion designers. Can we talk?"

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first mlb fic lol. Granted, I've actually written for it before but this is the first one I've finished/published. 
> 
> Got a prompt on tumblr so figured I might as well upload here too.


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